Under
African skies I
don’t mean privilege as in lords and ladies, la-di-da privilege, but coming away from your holiday with a feeling that it was not an
enjoyable experience, but we were privileged to see what we had seen, and touched by what we saw. That was the experience we had when we stayed at Bartholomeus Klip, a fantastically preserved Victorian farmhouse in the Cape Wineland region of South Africa. It was a privilege breakfasting with the
weavers. In the conservatory at the end of highly polished farmhouse, you could peer over tables groaning with a vast array of cereals and fruits, or topping treats from the hot plate, or traditional cooked breakfast, at the southern masked weaver birds are beavering away on constructing their hanging basket nest constructs. It was a magical display put on by mother
nature, and it was almost a star attraction. But that may a bit unfair on the other attractions. Our ranger guide, Carine Diest, later
explained that the male weaver bird builds a nest, and then when he is done proudly sings his heart out to attract a mate to his fine home. The picky female, then comes along, inspects the result of his labours, and if she approves,
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When you think about family holidays, one of the last things that comes to mind is ‘privilege’. Will Loram explains.....
they finish it off together. If it does not meet her standards, she tears the nest to pieces, and the crest fallen male has to start again. Sitting with my wife and daughter, I thought
it best to keep my mouth shut on any comment that sprang to mind. It was a privilege to clamber into the safari
Landcruiser and laden with binoculars and cameras to try and track down in the 10,000 acre reserve the quaggas. The Elandsklootf or Limit Mountains shoot dramatically up from the plains floor to form a jagged line of dragons teeth that marked a big natural boundary for early pioneers to the Cape. The what? You may ask. The quagga was
a type of zebra from the Cape that became extinct in 1883 when the last example died in a Dutch zoo. For 100 years the only evidence of their existence was stuffed dead animals in museums. Then in the 1980s DNA hit the headlines, and a museum curator called Reinhold Rau who had remounted a quagga foal exhibit started the process that would result in the Quagga Project to recreate the Plains Zebra subspecies to reserves in its native habitat in the Karoo regions by selective breeding. This meant trying to breed the stripes off the hind quarters
The lake a stones throw from the house
Below: Leila enjoys her holiday
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